After a (mostly) non-conference season filled with (mostly) fairly meaningless blowouts by elite teams of far inferior competition, I was definitely ready for a meaningful start to the conference season (sort of in the same way that sailboats jockey for position in pre-race maneuvers before the cannon fires and the real racing begins). And this past weekend did not disappoint. There were three matchups between undefeated teams, and a total of eight teams suffered their first loss of the season. In a week replete with upsets, however, there were two fairly predictable results. One: when there are a lot of upsets, AP poll voters tend not to know who to vote for, how much to penalize highly ranked teams for unexpected losses, and how much to reward previously unknown teams for unexpected wins. Consequently, the list of “others receiving votes” at the end of the poll is much longer than usual. Two: I don’t have trouble ranking teams, but I do have trouble deciding whom to give weekly awards, so my lists will be filled with honorable mentions.

By the way, I have fixed the settings on the blog so that only the most recent post will be visible, although you can browse archived posts too if you like. But this should make reading and commenting on the current edition easier.

The weekly awards:

Upset of the week: Honorable mention to Maryland’s 34-24 win at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights lost several key members of their defensive front-7 to graduation after last season, and the Terrapins exploited that weakness with a good running attack. Honorable mention to Kansas St’s 41-21 win at Texas. The Wildcats knocked Texas out of the running for the BCS title game last year, and the Longhorns were definitely bent on revenge. For K-St to go into Austin and deal Texas a 20-point defeat was quite an accomplishment. But the real upset of the week award goes to Colorado, who scored 17 points in the 4^th quarter to beat Oklahoma, 27-24. Dan Hawkins, in his second year as coach of the Buffaloes after leaving Boise St, finally has a signature win for his program over an elite team. As Alan would surely attest, there were probably a lot of couches burned in celebration in Boulder last Saturday.

Comeback of the week: Certainly Colorado’s 17-point 4^th quarter comeback was the most meaningful comeback of the week, but the award will go nonetheless to Arkansas St. Down 31-6 at halftime, they outscored Memphis 29-0 in the second half to win, 35-31.

Yawner of the week: Thankfully, there were not nearly as many candidates for this award as there have been in past weeks. I’ll give the nod to Texas Tech’s win over Northwestern St. Tech led 38-7 at the half en route to a 75-7 win. I guess those who paid to see a Red Raiders victory got their money’s worth, but those who paid to see a good football game, not so much…

Game of the week: Honorable mention to South Florida’s 21-13 win over West Virginia. A lot of pundits are calling this a major upset, but I’m not. USF has consistently impressed throughout the relatively short lifetime of its football program, and their history already includes some impressive wins, including at West Virginia last year and at Auburn this year. At 5-0 with quality wins, they can no longer be ignored by the pollsters, and they find themselves in the top-10 for the first time in their history.

Honorable mention to Wisconsin’s 37-34 win over Michigan St. The Badgers kept trying to put the game away and the Spartans kept scoring to keep the game close until Wisconsin finally got a late field goal to win it. Pundits are saying that, since Wisconsin had so much trouble with unranked Michigan St that Wisconsin must not be as good as they originally thought. I disagree – as you know from my previous posts I have thought that Michigan St was underrated for some time now, and for them to go into Madison and take the unbeaten Badgers right down to the wire is more of an indication of the Spartans’ strength than of the Badgers’ weakness. Of course, there are two obvious reason why Michigan St is not getting the props they are due at this point, and those reasons are: Appalachian St and Duke. (What? you say, Michigan St hasn’t played either of those teams!). No, but Appalachian St beat Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Duke beat Northwestern in Chicago. Pundits tend to measure guilt by association, and if two Big-10 teams can lose home games to vastly inferior opposition then, ipso facto, all Big-10 teams must not be as good as we thought. Rubbish, I say. We’ll find out how Michigan St stacks up against Northwestern next week and against Michigan next month. Until then, it’s comparing apples and oranges.

BUT THE REAL game of the week definitely goes to: Our Sturdy Golden Bears in their 31-24 victory over Oregon. It was a game that had you on the edge of your seat right from the opening kickoff all the way through the last play of the game. Most expected it to be an offensive shootout, but neither quarterback was sharp in the first half and defenses on both sides were playing aggressively and tenaciously. The halftime score would have been 3-3 were it not for a critical personal foul by Cal defensive back Marcus Ezeff that kept an Oregon drive, on which the Ducks would eventually score a touchdown, alive. Cal made offensive adjustments in the locker room and put them to good use in scoring four touchdowns in the second half, spotlighting a breakout game for Heisman candidate receiver Desean Jackson, the best road performance of his career for quarterback Nate Longshore, and bulldog running by Justin Forsett. Forsett in particular was an offensive savior for the Bears in the last 6 minutes of the game – Longshore suffered an ankle sprain and the Bears did not attempt another pass after that point; their remaining 8 offensive plays were all runs by Forsett including the touchdown that put them ahead for good. Even so, the Ducks had a chance to come back with a first-and-goal on the 5-yard-line with 22 seconds to play. Dennis Dixon, who had shaken off throwing two critical interceptions earlier in the fourth quarter (his only two interceptions of the year), hit receiver Cameron Colman with a swing pass, and Colman tried to stretch the ball over the goal line. Marcus Ezeff, in one of the most dramatic redemption moments you will ever see in a college football game, made up for his previous mistake by hitting Colman inches from the goal line causing him to fumble. The fumbled ball bounced into the end zone and out of bounds for a touchback turnover, and Cal escaped with a dramatic victory. (And adding to my joy, the officials saw the play well, conferred well, and got the call right!)

I’m winded again just thinking about it! Enough reminiscing, it’s time for this week’s rankings, presented with 22.1% reliability:

Rank	Team		Wins	Losses	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	LSU		5	0	3.760	18	1	1
2	USC		4	0	3.366	34	2	2
3	South Florida		4	0	3.200	49	17	6
4	California		5	0	3.158	45	14	3
5	Kentucky		5	0	3.130	53	13	8
6	Wisconsin		5	0	2.949	62	6	5
7	Arizona St		5	0	2.940	58	10	18
8	Missouri		4	0	2.912	65	8	17
9	Boston Coll		5	0	2.629	90	11	7
10	Ohio St		5	0	2.512	96	5	4
11	Oregon		4	1	2.466	13	4	14
12	Nebraska		4	1	2.309	24	16	25
13	South Carolina		4	1	2.167	35	29	11
14	Florida St		3	1	2.167	11	27	26
15	Florida		4	1	2.101	33	3	9
16	Illinois		4	1	2.074	44	24	28
17	Michigan St		4	1	2.034	41	9	32
18	Texas		4	1	2.009	42	7	19
19	Georgia		4	1	2.005	40	21	12
20	Connecticut		5	0	1.972	115	22	34
21	Cincinnati		5	0	1.960	116	25	20
22	West Virginia		4	1	1.957	47	20	13
23	Virginia		4	1	1.742	59	36	40
24	UCLA		4	1	1.724	54	39	30
25	Indiana		4	1	1.714	60	35
26	Hawaii		5	0	1.692	118	19	16
27	Virginia Tech		4	1	1.643	69		15
28	Kansas St		3	1	1.639	48		24
29	Purdue		5	0	1.611	119		23
30	Oklahoma		4	1	1.597	76	12	10
31	Tulsa		3	1	1.514	51
32	Auburn		3	2	1.503	21		29
33	Kansas		4	0	1.475	121		40
34	Wyoming		3	1	1.458	67
35	Texas A&M		4	1	1.447	88		31
36	Miami FL		4	1	1.412	91		27
37	Boise St		3	1	1.373	64		40
38	Colorado		3	2	1.287	9		36
39	BYU		3	2	1.266	12
40	Clemson		4	1	1.261	102	15	22
41	Bowling Green		3	1	1.205	85
42	Mississippi St		3	2	1.167	17	23
43	Alabama		3	2	1.118	20		35
44	Tennessee		2	2	1.003	1
45	Oklahoma St		3	2	0.962	30
46	Texas Tech		4	1	0.952	112
47	Wake Forest		2	2	0.899	5
48	Georgia Tech		3	2	0.896	37
49	Rutgers		3	1	0.884	107	18	21
50	Vanderbilt		3	1	0.807	108
51	UCF		3	1	0.662	113		37
52	New Mexico		3	2	0.500	66
53	Ball St		3	2	0.458	70
54	Air Force		3	2	0.457	71
55	Washington		2	3	0.418	3		43
56	Maryland		3	2	0.390	81
57	TCU		3	2	0.384	74
58	UTEP		3	2	0.354	87
59	Florida Atlantic		3	2	0.351	73
60	Arkansas		2	2	0.330	25		37
61	Akron		2	3	0.325	4
62	Kent St		3	2	0.310	84
63	Navy		3	2	0.301	92
64	New Mexico St		3	2	0.265	95
65	Troy		3	2	0.248	93
66	West Kentucky		3	2	0.134	104
67	Fresno St		2	2	0.102	43
68	Michigan		3	2	0.040	103		33
69	Oregon St		2	3	-0.054	14
70	Louisville		3	2	-0.090	109
71	Baylor		3	2	-0.101	111
72	Penn St		3	2	-0.157	114		39
73	Southern Miss		2	2	-0.184	79
74	Pittsburgh		2	3	-0.223	26
75	Arkansas St		2	2	-0.229	77
76	Nevada		2	2	-0.261	83
77	W Michigan		2	3	-0.327	32
78	Washington St		2	3	-0.350	31
79	Arizona		2	3	-0.385	36
80	East Carolina		2	3	-0.398	39
81	Houston		2	2	-0.412	97
82	UNLV		2	3	-0.442	46
83	Miami OH		2	3	-0.498	50
84	Stanford		1	3	-0.705	2
85	Northwestern		2	3	-0.750	75
86	Utah		2	3	-0.757	89
87	Ohio		2	3	-0.878	101
88	Army		2	3	-0.895	94
89	Iowa		2	3	-0.897	99
90	San Jose St		2	3	-0.912	100
91	Cent Michigan		2	3	-0.947	105
92	East Michigan		2	3	-1.078	110
93	Louisiana Tech		1	3	-1.144	19
94	Minnesota		1	4	-1.170	7
95	UAB		1	3	-1.207	28
96	San Diego St		1	3	-1.229	23
97	Mississippi		1	4	-1.240	6
98	Duke		1	4	-1.253	8
99	Tulane		1	3	-1.379	38
100	North Carolina		1	4	-1.534	27
101	NC St		1	4	-1.540	29
102	Syracuse		1	4	-1.716	57
103	Toledo		1	4	-1.756	63
104	Middle Tenn St		1	4	-1.765	56
105	Idaho		1	4	-1.917	80
106	SMU		1	4	-1.936	78
107	Memphis		1	3	-1.939	117
108	Buffalo		1	4	-1.957	98
109	Iowa St		1	4	-2.083	106
110	Others-Normal		0.50202	4.231313	-2.289	52
111	Northern Illinois		1	4	-2.425	120
112	LA Monroe		0	4	-2.685	10
113	Notre Dame		0	5	-2.740	15
114	Colorado St		0	4	-2.790	16
115	Marshall		0	4	-2.867	22
116	Florida Intl		0	5	-2.940	55
117	Temple		0	5	-3.027	72
118	Utah St		0	5	-3.032	68
119	Rice		0	4	-3.048	61
120	North Texas		0	4	-3.090	82
121	LA Lafayette		0	5	-3.102	86

Most overrated team: Honorable mention to Penn St, who doesn’t get the award only because they dropped out of the AP top-25. But they are still inexplicably getting votes, in that same irritating way that Miami kept getting votes in similar fashion last year. Honorable mention to Michigan. Yes, the Wolverines have won 3 straight, but their wins were over winless Notre Dame, overrated Penn St, and beaten-by-Duke Northwestern. As soon as Michigan beats a team worthy of note I might take interest, but it won’t be this week (they play Eastern Michigan… Sorry, Tim). The real most overrated team, however, is, sadly, Rutgers (3-1, AP#21, Hack#49). After last year, I’m on the Rutgers bandwagon too, but so far this year their victories have been over Buffalo, Navy, and Norfolk St, and if Maryland can run up and down the field on them they may face real problems when going up against even more high-powered offenses such as the one they will have to face next week at Cincinnati.

Most underrated team: Honorable mention to Michigan St, whose loss to Wisconsin dropped them only to #17 in the Hack Poll. Honorable mention to Nebraska, who is only ranked 25^th in the AP poll despite beating everyone they have faced except for USC. The real most underrated team right now is Virginia (4-1, AP#40, Hack#23). Their win over Georgia Tech a week ago should have started raising eyebrows among the pollsters, but so far they still haven’t garnered much attention. They don’t face another conference opponent for three weeks, however, when they visit Maryland.

Interesting games next week:

(5) Kentucky vs. (13) South Carolina [Wildcats hit the meat of their SEC schedule the next three weeks with games against South Carolina, LSU, and Florida]

(6) Wisconsin vs. (16) Illinois [Fighting Illini trying to keep the momentum following big win over Penn St]

(30) Oklahoma vs. (18) Texas [Both teams were upset last week; tempers could flare in this rivalry game]

(27) Virginia Tech vs. (40) Clemson [Both teams are 4-1 against soft schedules]

(10) Ohio St vs. (29) Purdue [The only battle of 5-0 teams this week]

(15) Florida vs. (1) LSU [Game lost some of its luster following Gators’ upset loss to Auburn, but still should be an exciting SEC showdown]

(21) Cincinnati vs. (49) Rutgers [Can Scarlet Knights slow down the potent Bearcats’ offense?]

(12) Nebraska vs. (8) Missouri [Two teams that have flown under the radar so far get some attention]

(4) California BYE [Thank goodness. Longshore needs time to rest up and heal]